Church of the Holy Communion at 4645 Walnut Grove Road in Memphis is hosting “Alleluia Be Our Measure,” A Festival of the Sacred Arts, May 1-3, and two of my drawings will be part of the art exhibit. The festival is bringing together artists, musicians and writers to attend workshops throughout the weekend.

God has opened the door for me to read two of my poems: “When Work Ceases” and “Silver Strands” Friday evening, May 1, as part of the opening ceremony. This will be my first public reading of poems from the pocket-size edition of Whippoorwill Calls, A Collection of Poems & Art.

Recently, I produced a large format, art only edition of Whippoorwill Calls. The interior paper is slick and does not absorb the ink resulting in drawings equal in quality to glossy prints sold earlier this year.

The local printing company responsible for the pre-press package of the first pocket-size book produced this edition titled, Whippoorwill Calls, Figure Studies & Gesture Drawings. It measures slightly smaller than 9×12 inches, and contains 23 drawings in this 30-page paperback. I am handling the distribution, currently with a 30% discount to retailers.

The task now is to get in front of people to sell books, individually, as well as identify a global printer/distributor to produce books of the same caliber, with a similar profit margin. My preference is to print the art only edition in Europe and distribute to independent booksellers in England, France and other countries.

A project begun in May is at the launch pad. The checklist has been reviewed and parts fine tuned. A test run is in progress: a copy of the paperback edition of Whippoorwill Calls is in route and scheduled to arrive in a couple of days. Once approved, it will be released for printing and global distribution…and countdown to market.

A hardcover edition in premium color is completing its revision cycle. Once the proof is available, it will go through the same steps as the paperback. The target release date for both is November 24, 2014.

In retirement and after a lifetime of fulfilling commitments I am living my joy, creating art. Whippoorwill Calls, A Collection of Poems & Art, a thin read, features 22 figure and gesture drawings with seven poems. Paperback and hardcover editions will be available soon.

I spent two months preparing the photographed art for publication. Several are black charcoal figure drawings and others are in red Conte’ crayon. Two are faces. In the book the leg in black and white in this post is in golden tones in Whippoorwill Calls.

The story behind The Brahma and me

With my first toe-tip into the blogosphere in March 2010, I began writing about my critter crew and life on the farm—their shenanigans and my delight in sharing time and space with them, as well as my reflections and my spiritual journey.

Reared in the Seattle suburbs and more importantly having never set foot on a farm, I had passed the half century mark before adopting my first calf.

Sent by my publisher to shoot dairy farms during dairy month in 1998, I captured on film a farmer pulling a half Holstein-half Brahma from his mother’s womb. At 11 days, I adopted him. Named Sonny, he rode to his new home inside the largest wire dog crate I could find placed in the back of the Dodge Ram.

For the first year of his life Sonny’s companions were primarily All-American canines. The farm has grown to include three bovines, Sonny, Holly and Buff; two equines--a line-back dun filly named Bebe and a Palomino paint gelding named Jack; two canines Sam and Luke; and 10 felines. All are rescues except for the horses.